AMAnals
Friday, June 12 2009
Tim Foley at Change.org has a helpful roundup of views on the American Medical Association’s flip-floppery. If you missed the brouhaha – if health care matters to you – check it out:
An article appearing in this morning’s NY Times by health politics uber-scribe Robert Pear declared “Doctors’ Group Opposes Public Insurance Plan.” It went on to describe the objections of the American Medical Association (AMA)* to the public health insurance option, the centerpiece of the health care plans being pushed by the relevant committees in Congress, in no uncertain terms. But by the early afternoon, the AMA was releasing a “clarifying statement” along the lines of “Oh, of course we’d be OK with certain types of public plans, silly!” So what the hell happened?
You probably know that the AMA has a long history of opposing any efforts to extend health care to the uninsured and underserved populations, including the infamous “Operation Coffecup“. You can pick up some of that history in the posts Tim links to. What’s suprising isn’t that the AMA opposes reform now, but that they folded their position so quickly once if became public; Tim offers a few guesses as to why.
I would add to Tim’s list at least one doc-blogger, since the AMA is ostensibly represents the interests of doctors. And far as I know, Shadowfax is the only doc-blogger to post on the issue; his post is also worth a read. The take-away for patients is that even if you trust your doctor to act in your best interests, you can’t necessarily trust doctors – that is, the AMA – to do so.
*Not to be confused with the other AMA: Against Medical Advice
I am a doctor and I do not belong to the AMA and never have. They have never represented my best interests.
You might want to see what percent of practicing doctors actually are members in the AMA. Also what percent of primary care doctors are members. If you check around, the AMA is not well respected or liked by even many doctors.
@stargirl65 – I hear you, and I don’t mean to imply that the AMA actually represents all or even most doctors; Tim Foley’s post even says only about 20% of doctors are members of the AMA.
The problem is that the AMA is the most visible, most respected organization of doctors when it comes to public policy. When the AMA says something, the folks in Washington figure they speak for most or all doctors. We need a lot more doctors saying that’s not true before it starts to sink in.